No Progress in Conference Committee on Medicaid Budget

by Tony McVeigh on March 8, 2011

House/Senate conference committee discussions on Kentucky’s Medicaid budget have bogged down again in Frankfort.

At the behest of the House, the conference committee revisited Governor Beshear’s plan for balancing the Medicaid budget. Two hours later, the conferees were no closer to agreement than when they started Friday night. So, House Speaker Greg Stumbo offered a compromise – let the governor try his plan, and use $69 million in additional unbudgeted revenue now coming in, to help balance if the governor fails.

“And not only doing that, saving an additional revenues that would result that aren’t budgeted as a result of growth. So, if there is growth, and I believe there will be, we’ll have not only the $69 million that we’ve recognized Mr. Chairman, but we’ll have a little bit on top of that,” said Stumbo.

Weary from the negotiations, the conferees broke for lunch, and will try again later. This could be their last chance for agreement because this is day 29 of the 30 day session and they want at least one day for veto overrides.